Nida Online

This game has been SHUT DOWN – It is NO LONGER available. This means the official servers are offline and no one can create new accounts or log in to the game. For all intents and purposes this game is dead. This page will be updated if the game ever re-launches.

Nida Online Overview

Nida Online is a fast-paced action MMO that tries to differentiate itself from the crowd. The game boasts that it has a simple interface, easy to learn controls and fast leveling. This is all good, but the fact that Nida Online is over five years old really shows. Nida Online has been available in Korea and Taiwan for years and has only recently made its way to the West through GameKiss’s international version. The game’s four playable classes are:

Knights - Knights are the traditional ‘warrior’ type class in Nida Online. They are a brutish, melee-oriented class with high defensive capabilities and hit points. They specialize in using Swords, Spears, Axes, Bows and Twin Blades.

Mages - Mages are the primary offensive spell-casting class in Nida Online, as they can deal devastating amounts of damage with their magical spells. Their one drawback is that they are extremely vulnerable in melee combat, as they have very few hit points and low defense.

Summoners – As the name implies, Summoners in Nida Online can conjure creatures to help them in battle. It’s a fairly unique class, as most MMORPGs don’t have anything like it. Like mages, they are still vulnerable in melee range. They are proficient with YoYos, Rods, Boomerangs Flutes and Spirits.

Artificers - Artificers are the reason why Nida Online is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. They are the sci-fi component to the game, as they are humans with jetpacks and powerful futuristic weapons. They are proficient with Pistols, Machine Guns, Bazookas, Laser Guns, Shotguns, Grenades and Mortars.

Nida Online Screenshots

Nida Online Featured Video

Full Review

Nida Online Review

By Cody ‘Neramaar’ Hargreaves

The F2P MMORPG industry has taken leaps and bounds in terms of advancement in the last year. Games such as Battlefield Heroes, Battleforge, Atlantica Online and Runes of Magic have shown us that you don’t need to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to have a good time online, and according to recent studies, the F2P facet of online gaming is reporting a higher profit than many of the P2P subscription models. Of course, the incredible increase in graphics and gameplay is something of a double-edged sword, as with it comes the increase of our expectations too, and it’s a factor that’s making some older games—games like NIDA Online—work much harder to keep up with the pack.

A STROLL DOWN NINTENDO 64 LANE
NIDA Online is one of the many F2P MMORPGs on the market that have failed in keeping up with more modern MMORPGs. Without regular updates and a dominant player following, NIDA Online is no longer falling behind; so much as it has fallen behind, with little hope of recovery. I jumped in to find out why, and I found my answer quickly.

It was, admittedly, the graphics. I’ll agree that in most cases the graphics don’t make the game, but there’s a limit to how much of a beating my little eyes can take; and with an engine that would no doubt revel in the glory of the Nintendo 64, NIDA’s graphics are well below the standard today. You are given your first taste during the character creation, as you struggle to determine whether or not your character was designed during this century, or sometime in the early 90s. The character choices themselves aren’t so bad, offering you a choice between the Knight (a Warrior-esque archetype), Magician (offensive spell-caster), Summoner (a pet summoning class) and Artificer (gun-wielding class with a jetpack). However, the customization options again fall well behind, with only a few hair and face options, each of them so similar to the last that choosing one almost becomes redundant.

Creating a character and entering the game for the first time brings with it a certain type of unforgettable magic, as your previously horrible-looking character turns, quite literally, from bad to worse. Evidently, the armor seen in the character customization screen is removed and replaced with something far more hideous—noob equipment—and the result is an eyesore you’re likely to see every time you close your eyes for many years to come. There are things that go bump in the night, ladies and gentlemen, and the characters in NIDA Online are one of them. So, placing a big ‘0’ in the graphics column of my review, I continued my journey into the unknown depths of NIDA Online in search of gameplay.

NIDA FEW NEW GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS (GEDDIT?)
Regrettably, I didn’t find much there, either. The tutorial (in the form of a help menu filled to the brim with poorly written text) did little to alleviate the pain I experienced being thrown head-first into the fray, left to fend for my life against an onslaught of poorly programmed movement options and early 90′s graphical glitches. Fortunately, it didn’t take me very long to get the hang of things; mainly due to the fact that there is little to get the hang of. W,A,S,D movement has been replaced by the older-style click-to-move system, and as there are no quests to complete, gameplay only really extends as far as killing enemies repeatedly until you increase in level.

As for the killing, it seems that Giant Spiders are the plague in which you will be eradicating should you find yourself playing NIDA Online; but fear not, you won’t have much trouble doing so. No matter your class selection (although admittedly, some are far easier than others), the Giant Spiders go down in only a few clicks, and as the experience gain is something of a joke, you’ll find yourself at level 5 in a little under a minute. ‘Fast leveling’, as it’s described on the official website, seems something of an understatement in NIDA Online, as from my experience, players should be capable of reaching level 2000 (the reported level of the in-game GMs) with only a few days play.

If by some miracle you manage to find yourself bested by the awesome might of the Giant Spiders, you’ll no doubt find yourself wondering how to regain HP. At least, I was, anyway. I’m still unsure of the correct method, though I’ve found one that works equally well. Simply allow yourself to die, then respawn at the same location immediately, with no repercussions whatsoever. Works like a charm.

STAYING POSITIVE
Outside of combat you really only have exploration and equipment to look forward too, and even then, I feel as though I’m being too ambitious with the phrasing “look forward to”. The dated graphics turn exploration into something more closely resembling a trip down memory lane, and the equipment (which, by the way, I was actually really looking forward too, as it was described on the website as “experience the amazing changes your characters will undergo when wearing different types of items”) turned out to be exactly as it sounds—equipping new items, and seeing a new visuals as you do. Exciting stuff.

On the side of optimism, there are a few elements of NIDA Online that can be viewed in a positive light. Namely, the PvP (or PK) system, offering a similar system to that found in Lineage 2, allowing you to attack another player on sight simply by holding the [Left Ctrl] button and clicking, with the appropriate karma repercussions intact, and the Ranking system akin to that of Aion, allowing you to be recognized by rank according to your success in PvP.

In reality, NIDA Online’s only real crime (and too, it’s reason for failure) is simply thus: it’s old. The graphics are old, and this is further extenuated by the video options offering little more than the ability to customize draw distance and turn on shadows. The gameplay is old, shown brilliantly through the lack of quests and the click-to-move system. As a result, the overall feeling of the game in general is old, and while I fully appreciate revisiting a game in search of some nostalgia, I really don’t think NIDA Online is the game I’d be playing to find it.

Final Verdict: Poor
If I’d been offered to play NIDA Online ten years ago, the PvP elements and equipment customisation may have been enough to help me enjoy it, but today, that’s simply not the case. If you’re in the market for a good grind-game, I’d suggest you keep looking—unless you’re playing on a Commodore 64; this will probably run on it.